Artificial Intelligence System Able to Move Individual Molecules
- Updated on: 2020-09-14
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Artificial Intelligence System Able to Move Individual Molecules
Artificial Intelligence System Able to Move Individual Molecules
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Image: Forschungszentrum Jülich / Christian Wagner
Scientists from Jülich and Berlin have developed an artificial intelligence system that is capable of autonomously learning how to move individual molecules through the use of a scanning tunneling microscope. Because atoms and molecules do not act like macroscopic objects, each one of these building blocks needs its own system for moving.
The new method, which the scientists believe can be used for research and production technologies like molecular 3D printing, was published in Science Advances .
3D Printing
Rapid prototyping, more commonly known as 3D printing, is extremely cost effective when it comes to creating prototypes or models. It has been increasing in importance over the years as the technology has constantly improved, and it is now a major tool used by industry.
Dr. Christian Wagner is head of the ERC working group on molecular manipulation at Forschungszentrum Jülich.
“If this concept could be transferred to the nanoscale to allow individual molecules to be specifically put together or separated again just like LEGO bricks, the possibilities would be almost endless, given that there are around 1060 conceivable types of molecular manipulation at Forschungszentrum Jülich,” Wagner says.
Individual “Recipes”
One of the main challenges is the individual “recipes” needed in order for the scanning tunneling microscope to move individual molecules back and forth. These are needed so that the tip of the microscope can arrange molecules spatially and in a targeted manner.
The so-called recipe can not be calculated or deduced by intuition, which is due to the complex nature of the mechanics on the nanoscale. The way the microscope works is by having a rigid cone at the tip, which the molecules lightly stick to. In order for those molecules to move around, complex movement patterns are required.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Tautz is head of the Quantum Nanoscience Institute at Jülich.
“To date, such targeted movement of molecules has only been possible by hand, through trial and error. But with the help of a self-learning, autonomous software control system, we have now succeeded for the first time in finding a solution for this diversity and variability on the nanoscale, and in automating this process,” Tautz says.
One of the fundamental aspects of this development is reinforcement learning, which is a type of machine learning that involves the algorithm repeatedly attempting a task and learning from each attempt.
Prof. Dr. Klaus-Robert Müller is head of the Machine Learning department at TU Berlin.
“We do not prescribe a solution pathway for the software agent, but rather reward success and penalize failure,” he says.
“In our case, the agent was given the task of removing individual molecules from a layer in which they are held by a complex network of chemical bonds. To be precise, these were perylene molecules, such as those used in dyes and organic light-emitting diodes,” Dr. Christian Wagner adds.
There is a key point at which the force required to move the molecules cannot exceed the strength of the bond where the tunneling microscope attracts the molecule.
“The microscope tip therefore has to execute a special movement pattern, which we previously had to discover by hand, quite literally,” Wagner says.
Reinforcement learning is used while the software agent learns which movements work, and it continues to improve each time.
However, the tip of the scanning tunneling microscope consists of metal atoms, which can shift, and this changes the bond strength of the molecule.
“Every new attempt makes the risk of a change and thus the breakage of the bond between tip and molecule greater. The software agent is therefore forced to learn particularly quickly, since its experiences can become obsolete at any time,” Prof. Dr. Stefan Tautz says. “It’s a little as if the road network, traffic laws, bodywork, and rules for operating the vehicles are constantly changing while driving autonomously.”
In order to get past this, the researchers developed the software so that it learns a simple model of the environment where the manipulation happens in parallel with the initial cycles. In order to quicken the learning process, the agent simultaneously trains in reality and in its own model.
“This is the first time ever that we have succeeded in bringing together artificial intelligence and nanotechnology,” Klaus-Robert Müller says.
“Up until now, this has only been a ‘proof of principle,’” Tautz continues. “However, we are confident that our work will pave the way for the robot-assisted automated construction of functional supramolecular structures, such as molecular transistors, memory cells, or quibits — with a speed, precision, and reliability far in excess of what is currently possible.”
Alex McFarland is a historian and journalist covering the newest developments in artificial intelligence.
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AI Model Might Let Game Developers Generate Lifelike Animations
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A team of researchers at Electronic Arts have recently experimented with various artificial intelligence algorithms, including reinforcement learning models, to automate aspects of video game creation. The researchers hope that the AI models can save their developers and animators time doing repetitive tasks like coding character movement.
Designing a video game, particularly the large, triple-A video games designed by large game companies, requires thousands of hours of work. As video game consoles, computers, and mobile devices become more powerful, video games themselves become more and more complex. Game developers are searching for ways to produce more game content with less effort, for example, they often choose to use procedural generation algorithms to produce landscapes and environments. Similarly, artificial intelligence algorithms can be used to generate video game levels, automate game testing, and even animate character movements.
Character animations for video games are often completed with the assistance of motion capture systems, which track the movements of real actors to ensure more life-like animations. However, this approach does have limitations. Not only does the code that drives the animations still need to be written, but animators are also limited only to the actions that have been captured.
As Wired reported, researchers from EA set out to automate this process and save both time and money on these animations. The team of researchers demonstrated that a reinforcement learning algorithm could be used to create a human model that moves in realistic fashions, without the need to manually record and code the movements. The research team used “Motion Variational Autoencoders” (Motion VAEs) to identify relevant patterns of movement from motion-capture data. After the autoencoders extracted the movement patterns, a reinforcement learning system was trained with the data, with the goal of creating realistic animations based on certain objectives (such as running after a ball in a soccer game). The planning and control algorithms used by the research team were able to generate the desired motions, even producing motions that weren’t in the original set of motion-capture data. This means that after learning how a subject walks, the reinforcement learning model can determine what running looks like.
Julian Togelius, NYU professor and AI tools company Modl.ai co-founder was quoted by Wired as saying that the technology could be quite useful in the future and is likely to change how content for games is created.
“Procedural animation will be a huge thing. It basically automates a lot of the work that goes into building game content,” Togelius said to Wired.
According to professor Michiel van de Panne from UBC, who was involved with the reinforcement learning project, the research team is looking to take the concept further by animating non-human avatars with the same process. Van de Panne said to Wired that although the process of creating new animations can be quite difficult, he is confident the technology will be able to render appealing animations someday.
Other applications of AI in the development of video games include the generation of basic games. For instance, researchers at the University of Toronto managed to design a generative adversarial network that could recreate the game Pac-Man without access to any of the code used to design the game. Elsewhere, researchers from the University of Alberta used AI models to generate levels of video games based off on the rules of different games like Super Mario Bros. and Mega Man.
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Dor Skuler, the CEO and Co-Founder of Intuition Robotics – Interview Series
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Dor Skuler is the co-founder and CEO of Intuition Robotics , a company redefining the relationship between humans and machines. They build digital companions including ElliQ – the sidekick for happier aging which improves the lives of older adults.
Intuition Robotics is your fifth venture. What inspired you to launch this company?
Throughout my career, I’ve enjoyed finding brand new challenges that are in need of the latest technology innovations. As technology around us became more sophisticated, we believed that there was a need to redefine the relationship between humans and machines, through digital companion agents. We decided to start with helping older adults stay active and engaged with a social companion. We felt this was an important space to start with, as we could create a solution to help older adults avoid loneliness and social isolation. We’re doing this by focusing on celebrating aging and the joys of this specific period in life, rather than focusing on disabilities.
Intuition Robotics’ first product is ElliQ a digital assistant for the elderly. How does ElliQ help older adults fight loneliness, dementia, etc?
90% of older adults prefer to age at home, and we’re seeing a positive trend of “aging in place” at home and within their own communities, as opposed to moving to a senior care facility. We’re also seeing a strong willingness to adopt non-medical approaches to improve quality of life for older adults, including technologies that allow them to thrive and continue living independently, rather than offerings that only treat issues.
Many home assistants on the market today are reactive and command-based; they only respond to questions and do tasks when prompted. This does little to create a relationship and combat loneliness as you feel like you’re just talking to a machine. ElliQ is different in that she intuitively learns users’ interests and proactively makes suggestions. Instead of waiting for someone to ask her to play music, for example, ElliQ will suggest digital content like TED talks, trivia games, or music. She’ll learn her user’s routines and preferences and will prompt them to engage in an activity after ElliQ notices inactivity. ElliQ creates an emotional bond and helps users feel like they aren’t alone.
You’ve stated that pro-active AI initiated Interactions is very important. In one product demo one of the interesting functions is ElliQ will randomly introduce a piece of interesting information. Is this simply a way of connecting with the user? What are some of the other advantages of doing this?
Proactivity helps to create a bi-directional relationship with the user. Not only is the user prompting the device, but since the device is a goal-based AI agent wanting to motivate the user to be more connected and engaged in the world around him, she’ll proactively initiate interactions that will promote the agent’s goals. Proactivity also helps the user in relating better to the device and feeling as if this is a lifelike entity and not a piece of hardware.
Being pro-active is important, but one of the challenges of a digital assistant is not to annoy a user, how do you tackle this challenge?
We have been designing our digital companions to encompass a “do not disturb the user” goal. This goal is part of our decision making algorithm based on which the agent makes a decision what to proactively initiate. This goal competes with the agent’s other goals such as keeping the user entertained or connected to family members. Based on reinforcement learning , one of these goals “wins”.
Can you discuss designing personality or character in order to enable the human to bond with the machine?
A distinct, character-based personality makes an AI agent more fun, intriguing, and approachable, so the user feels much more comfortable opening up and engaging in a two-way exchange of information. The agent’s personality also provides the unique opportunity to reflect and personify the brand and product that it’s embedded into – we like to think of it as a character in a movie or play. The agent is like an actor that was selected to play a specific role in a movie, serving its unique purpose in its environment (or “scene”) accordingly.
As such, the agent for a car would have a completely different personality and way of communicating than an agent designed for work or home. Nevertheless, its personality should be as distinct and recognizable as possible. We like to describe ElliQ’s personality as a combination of a Labrador and Sam from Lord of the Rings – highly knowledgeable, yet loyal and playful. Discovering the agent’s personality over time helps the user open up and get to know the agent, and the enticement keeps the user coming back for more.
Sometimes an AI may interrupt a conversation or some other event. Is ElliQ programmed to ask for forgiveness? If yes, how is this achieved without further annoying the end user?
ElliQ’s multi modality allows her to express her mistakes. For example, she can bow down her head to signal that she’s apologetic. Overall in designing an AI agent, it is very important to create fail and repair mechanisms that will allow the agent to sophisticatedly apologize for disturbing or not understanding.
One of the interesting things you stated is that ‘users don’t want to anticipate what she (ElliQ) will do next’. Do you believe that people yearn for the type of unpredictability that is normally associated with humans?
We think that users yearn for many elements of human interaction, including quirks like unpredictability, spontaneity, and fun. ElliQ achieves this with unprompted questions, suggestions, and recommendations for activities in the digital world and the physical world. To increase the feeling of having a machine, ElliQ is designed to not repeat herself but to surprise the users with her interactions. This is all to invoke the feeling of being lifelike and to allow the creation of a real bond.
Users will learn to expect ElliQ to anticipate their needs. Do you believe that some type of resentment towards the AI can begin to brew if this anticipation remains unmet?
Yes, I think users will be disappointed if AI around them doesn’t act on their behalf or expectations are unmet. This is why transparency is important when designing such agents – so the user really understands the boundaries of what is possible.
You also stated that users do not see ElliQ as something that is alive, instead they see it as an in-between, something not alive or a machine, but something closer to a presence or a companion. What does this tell us about the human condition, and how should people who design AI systems take this into consideration?
This tells us that as humans, we need interaction and to build relationships in order to feel connected. ElliQ won’t replace other humans, but she can help evoke similar feelings of companionship and help users not feel so lonely or like they’re just talking to a box. She’s much more than an assistant or a machine; she’s a companion with a personality. She’s an emotive entity that users feel as if she lifelike but they truly comprehend that she is actually a device.
Intuition Robotics also has a second product which is an in-car digital companion. Could you give us some details about this product?
In 2019, Toyota Research Institute (TRI) selected Intuition Robotics to collaborate on an in-car AI agent. Through this collaboration, we’re helping TRI create an experience in which the car will engage drivers and passengers in a proactive and personalized way. The experience is powered by our cognitive AI platform, Q. It’s an in-cabin digital companion that creates a unique, personalized experience and aims to accelerate consumer’s trust with autonomy in cars and create a much more engaging and seamless in-car experience.
Thank you for the interview, I really enjoyed learning more about your company and how elliQ can be such a powerful solution for an elderly population that technology often ignores. Readers who wish to learn more should visit Intuition Robotics , or visit ElliQ .
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The training data consisted of approximately 200 million samples of dogs in motion, tracked in a physics simulation. The different motions were then run through reward functions and policies that the agents learned with. After the policies were created in the simulation, they were transferred to the real world using a technique called latent space adaptation. Because the physics simulators used to train the robots could only approximate certain aspects of real-world motion, the researchers randomly applied various perturbations to the simulation, intended to simulate operation under different conditions.
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“We show that by leveraging reference motion data, a single learning-based approach is able to automatically synthesize controllers for a diverse repertoire [of] behaviors for legged robots. By incorporating sample efficient domain adaptation techniques into the training process, our system is able to learn adaptive policies in simulation that can then be quickly adapted for real-world deployment.”
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